Lakers guard Austin Reaves drives to the basket against Cleveland on March 21, 2022. Archive photo by Erik Drost (CC BY 2.0).

The Detroit Pistons had erased all but one point of a 26-point deficit, and the Los Angeles Lakers needed a way to score with Luka Dončić out. Austin Reaves had been doing that all evening. With 45.6 seconds left, he made a three-pointer that put Los Angeles ahead 112–104. He kept adding points at the foul line as Detroit pressed to get back within reach. Reaves finished with a season-high 43, and the Lakers won 121–116 on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena, their fifth consecutive victory. NBA game analysis Associated Press game report via CBS Detroit NBA game recap

Detroit made 19 three-pointers, eight more than the Lakers, and had two reserves score at least 24 points. It came within a free throw of tying the game at 90 in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles held on because its best scorer delivered at the rim, from three and at the line, and because the rest of the rotation did enough to keep the offense going when the lead began to disappear. The teams each made 42 field goals. The difference in how they added points around those makes tells the story of the game. Official Lakers box score Associated Press game report via CBS Detroit

How the Lakers built a 26-point lead

Los Angeles led 38–14 at the end of the first quarter and 40–14 early in the second. The NBA’s tracking summary identified a 27–8 stretch that began with just over nine minutes left in the first period. A run like that is difficult to sustain, but it can buy a team substantial time to adjust later. The Lakers had to make their margin last in a game where their normal source of on-ball creation, Dončić, had been ruled out with lower-back tightness. The size of the first-quarter advantage gave them room to have an uneven second without giving up the lead. NBA game analysis Official NBA injury report Associated Press game report via CBS Detroit

The absence affected the responsibilities of more than one player. Reaves could take a larger share of the possessions that required someone to create a shot. The other guards still had to handle the ball and keep the defense from devoting every possession to him. Quentin Grimes started and finished with 12 points and four assists. Collin Sexton scored 17 in 24 minutes, and Ziaire Williams also scored 17, making four threes. Los Angeles had several ways to get points without asking Reaves to take a difficult shot on every trip. Official Lakers box score

Walker Kessler helped protect that structure near the basket. He scored 12 points, collected 16 rebounds, including seven on offense, and blocked three shots. An offensive rebound gives a team another chance to run its offense without having to win another stop. Those extra chances are especially valuable when the other team can gain points quickly from three. Kessler supplied seven of the Lakers’ 12 offensive rebounds. Jarred Vanderbilt pulled down 10 total rebounds in under 14 minutes, helping Los Angeles finish with a narrow 44–43 edge on the glass. Official Lakers box score

Jenkins and Huerter changed the geometry of the game

Detroit did not need to win every quarter by a huge margin to get close. Its second-quarter 19–5 run narrowed the deficit, and the Pistons continued to score after halftime. Daniss Jenkins made eight of 15 three-point attempts and scored 31. Kevin Huerter went four of eight from three and finished with 24 points, five rebounds and five assists. Their 12 makes from outside accounted for 36 points on their own. A few consecutive possessions ending in threes can make a lead built on ordinary twos much less comfortable in a short period. NBA game analysis Official Lakers box score

The Pistons also had 18 offensive rebounds to the Lakers’ 12. Paul Reed grabbed eight of them and Ausar Thompson added four. Those extra opportunities help explain why Detroit attempted 94 field goals to 84 for Los Angeles. The Pistons had a way to keep coming even when an initial shot missed. They also assisted on 27 of their 42 baskets, compared with 19 assists for the Lakers. The comeback was built with a combination of shot volume, good outside shooting from two bench scorers and possessions that kept going after misses. Official Lakers box score

Cade Cunningham finished with 14 points and eight assists. He had a chance to tie it at 90 with 9:14 left in the fourth but missed the second of two free throws. That moment matters because it tells us how far Detroit had come while time still remained for either team to play a substantial stretch of basketball. It also foreshadowed a smaller numerical issue that became a large part of the result. The Pistons had enough opportunities from the floor. They were less productive when the points depended on a free throw. Associated Press game report via CBS Detroit Official Lakers box score

The 13-point difference at the foul line

Both teams made 42 field goals. Detroit made 19 threes to 11 for the Lakers, so it scored 103 points from field goals while Los Angeles scored 95. The Lakers made 26 free throws. The Pistons made 13. That reversed an eight-point deficit from the floor and produced the five-point winning margin. Los Angeles also attempted 33 free throws, 13 more than Detroit. The story at the line involves both the number of chances and what each team did when it got there. Official Lakers box score

Reaves made all 11 of his free throws. He shot 14 of 27 overall and four of six from three, so his 43 came from 20 points on two-pointers, 12 on threes and 11 at the line. That distribution helps explain how he could continue to score under different conditions. A defense that closes out harder at the arc still has to deal with what he can do after he puts the ball on the floor. When the game reached the last minute, he had already demonstrated several ways to score without waiting for a particular type of look. Official Lakers box score NBA highlights from Reaves’ 43-point game

Sexton was seven of eight at the line. Reaves and Sexton combined for 18 makes, more than Detroit’s entire team. That does not diminish how well the Pistons shot from outside. It explains why their advantage from three did not decide the game. The two teams shot almost the same percentage from beyond the arc, but Detroit took 20 more threes. The Lakers offset that volume with a higher overall field-goal percentage, 50 percent against 44.7, and enough free throws to overcome the points Detroit had gained from its shot mix. Official Lakers box score

Effective field-goal percentage offers another way to compare the two shooting performances. It gives a made three extra weight to reflect the extra point. Applying that calculation to the box score puts Los Angeles at about 56.5 percent and Detroit at about 54.8 percent. The raw field-goal percentages make the gap look wider because they treat every make alike. Detroit generated more chances and used the three-point line to raise the value of its makes. Los Angeles was still a little more efficient per shot, and the extra possessions Detroit earned were enough to win the scoring battle from the floor. The foul line was where the Lakers found their decisive surplus. Official Lakers box score

What Reaves did when the game tightened

At 112–104 after Reaves’ late three, Detroit still had opportunities to score quickly. The game did not finish with the Lakers simply dribbling out the clock. The Pistons scored 12 points after that basket, and Los Angeles needed nine more of its own to preserve the lead. Reaves’ final free throws took his total to 43 and completed the scoring at 121–116. A late three is often treated as a decisive shot in isolation. Its value here was the margin it provided before the two teams entered a much faster exchange of points. NBA game analysis CBS Sports final play log

Reaves played 36:41, added five rebounds and four assists, and committed one turnover. The Lakers were plus-21 in his minutes and won by five. The gap in those figures cannot isolate any one player’s effect, because lineups and opponents change together. It does give a useful sense of why the lead felt so much less secure when Los Angeles needed offense elsewhere. Reaves handled a lot of the scoring responsibility while keeping his own turnovers low. The Lakers could depend on their possessions ending in a shot or a trip to the line often enough to answer Detroit’s runs. Official Lakers box score

What the result says about both rotations

Los Angeles is 9–2 and Detroit is 6–3. The absence of Dončić and Detroit center Jalen Duren, who was out with a right hamstring strain, changed the matchup on both ends. Kessler’s rebounding and Reaves’ foul shooting gave the Lakers two reliable sources of value in that setting. Detroit’s ability to nearly tie the game after falling 26 behind showed how much it could get from Jenkins, Huerter and its work on the offensive glass. The first quarter was too costly to erase without a better finish at the line or a late stop. Official NBA injury report Official Lakers box score NBA game recap

The win gives Los Angeles a concrete answer for one night without Dončić. Its offense could put the ball in Reaves’ hands, get supporting points from the other guards and trust Kessler to extend some possessions. Detroit found enough scoring to expose how close that arrangement came to breaking down. When the Pistons got within a point, Los Angeles still had the player who could create a late shot and finish the game at the line. That was the difference between a comeback that changed the game and one that changed the result.